Guinea postpones release of election results

AP foreign, Tuesday October 1 2013

CONAKRY, Guinea (AP) â Guinea's electoral commission says it could be days before provisional results are available from the West African nation's first legislative elections in more than a decade, drawing criticism from the opposition.

A commission spokesman had earlier said provisional results would be available Tuesday, or 72 hours after Saturday's vote. But commission Vice President El Hadji Ibrahim Kalil Keita told journalists Tuesday the results would not be made public until 72 hours after they had all been collected from polling stations around the country, a process that is still ongoing.

Opposition politician Sidya Toure said there was no legitimate reason for the delay, claiming the commission was relying on a dubious interpretation of Guinea's electoral law.

On Monday, opposition leaders said "appalling" fraud would make it difficult to accept the results.